It has been a quiet Thanksgiving morning so far around the Weeda house. We ate a delicious breakfast of Andy's "famous scrambled eggs" together and then promptly sat down to write out our "Thankfuls" for the year. It has been tradition to write 5 things we are thankful from the past year and to share them with our family. I have to admit this year it was VERY difficult to only write 5, I could've filled a whole page (or two). I believe this is true of me because I have been practicing thankfulness daily now for a while since I have read Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts book. After sharing what we were thankful for, I got some quiet time to drink my coffee and read out of my new top favorite book, The Rest of God, by Mark Buchanan. I couldn't believe what I was reading this morning...it was all about Thankfulness, it couldn't have been more perfect on Thanksgiving day.
"The best way I know to embody this Godward orientation [to train ourselves in God's goodness and His sovereignty] is thankfulness. Thankfulness is a secret passageway into a room you can't find any other way. It is the wardrobe into Narnia. It allows us to discover the rest of God--those dimensions of God's world, God's presence, God's character that are hidden, always, from the thankless. Ingratitude is an eye disease every bit as much as a heart disease. It sees only flaws, scars, scarcity. Likewise, the god of the thankless is wary, stingy, grudging, bumbling, nitpicky. He's by turns meddlesome and apathetic, suspicious then indifferent, grubbing about in our domestic trifles one moment, oblivious to our personal catastrophes the next. But to give thanks, to render it as Scripture tells us we ought--in all circumstances, for all things, to the glory of God--such thanksgiving becomes a declaration of God's sovereign goodness. You cannot practice thankfulness on a biblical scale without its altering the way you see. And the more you do it, the more you can find cause for doing it. Inherent in a life of thanksgiving is an ongoing discovery of God's sufficiency, His generosity, His fatherly affection and warrior protection. 'To the faithful,' David said of God, 'you show yourself faithful' (2 Samuel 22:26)."
It's a beautiful reminder that it's not just a day we celebrate but a lifestyle we live, out of trust in God, in all circumstances.
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
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